CUSTOMER SERVICES EXCELLENCE COURSE

SECTION 6: Identifying Customers and Competitors

1) Who is Your Customer?

There are reasons to separate the types of customers you serve: you may have a
help desk and a service desk, or maybe a service desk that serves both internal
employees and public customers. For customer service, too, knowing the needs
of your customers will clarify workflows and help you decide whether your
company should distinguish between internal and external customers.

Internal Customer –

An internal customer is someone who has a relationship with your company,

though the person may or may not purchase the product. It is often a
person who works within the company, such as general employees and managers.

Internal customers need not be directly internal to the company. For instance,
you may partner with other companies in order to deliver your product to
the end user, the external customer. Such internal customers all have a
hand in delivering the product to your end client. Less obvious but
certainly significant, stakeholders and shareholders are additional internal
customers.

Internal customers know more about the pros and cons of the products or
services as compared to External customers.

External Customer –

External customers are the people that pay for and use the products or services
your company offers. When brainstorming problems and designing
solutions, these customers are who you’re designing for.

To be clear, an external customer is a person who is not directly connected to

your organization other than by purchasing your product or service. This
customer could be a one-time purchaser or a person your work
with long-term, providing add-ons or customization options. External
customers are also known as “clients” or “accounts”.

The goals for your external customer can depend on your product, but they can
include repeat purchasing, giving referrals and positive reviews, and
otherwise supporting your company.

They are the lifeblood of the company because of their revenue stream—if
they’re not here, the company fails.

Five Types of Customer

i) Potential Customer
The Potential Paul is a type of customer that is on the very beginning of your
sales or service funnel. They are not your customer yet. They are a lead that
needs nurturing and warming up before making a buying decision. They already
showed some interest in your business, either by a telephone call, visiting your
website, filling out a contact form, signing up for a newsletter or asking a question
via your live chat tool.

- Show them value: You can capitalize on their interest by clearly showing
them what they can get from your product or service . You can do this
yourself or point him to a resource like a landing page or a case study that
will do it for you.
- Reveal yourself: Make sure to let the potential customer know that they can
ask for help or advice at any time. Even if the customer won’t need it
immediately, they will appreciate the offer.

ii) New Customer

This is the fresh customer that just bought something from you. He is still
learning the ropes of using your product. You need to do everything in your
power to make that adoption period smooth.

Even though you already made a sale, you can’t leave them without any help. If
they don’t receive it, they may not find much success with your product or
service. The time you save by not helping them will be less valuable than the
future business they may bring. You can make sure that doesn’t happen with a
proper user “onboarding”. After someone buys your product, you need to guide
them and show them how to use it.

- Guide them to success: You can earn a long-lasting customer by investing a

bit of your time into explaining how your product works and making sure the
new customer knows how to use it. You can do that with a proper onboarding
process.
 - Leave a contact option open: Even if you offer an automated onboarding to
customers, have a live customer service option available. It will go a long way
in situations when a customer has a question that’s not covered in the
onboarding.

iii) Impulsive Customer

This is the type of customer that can make a buying decision in an instant,
provided that the conditions are right.

They don’t need much convincing to make a purchase. You don’t need to warm
this lead up with value proposition too much.

The less steps involved, the higher chances that a customer will make a
purchase. Clear the way for the customer and get rid of any distraction they may
face to make sure you’re not wasting that buying impulse when it comes.

- Clear the way to checkout: Make sure nobody needs a manual to make a
purchase on your website. The less clicks and information needed to make a
purchase, the better.
- Quick and concise help: If you get a question from them, make the answer
short. Stick to the facts. You also need to provide the response quickly. If you
take too long, the buying impulse will fade and they will break contact with
you.

iv) Discount Customer

This is the type of customer that sees value in your product but won’t buy it at full
price. Upselling your product or service to this customer is nearly impossible.

They are usually looking for some extra information on the exact conditions of the
deal or discount you are offering. You can help them by explaining the deal and
what they need to do to use it.

Once the deal runs out, it’s hard to keep them as a customer. If you are offering a
service at a discounted price, they will usually leave once the discount stops
applying. To increase your chances of keeping them as a customer, you need to
show them that they are not only getting a product or service at a discount, but
they also get amazing customer service bundled with his purchase.

You need to provide added value that will make them think twice before switching
to another company.
 - Explain the deal: Provide all the necessary details about the deal to avoid any
confusion.
- Offer added value: To make sure they continue being one of your customers,
you need to go beyond your initial offering. Add the cherry on top of the deal.
Something that they can’t get elsewhere. Stellar customer service can be one
of such advantages that will help you keep them as a customer.

v) Loyal Customer
This type of customers keeps coming back for more. Apart from having a
significant impact on your revenue, they will be also be your brand’s
ambassador.

Customers like these help you grow through word of mouth. They will
recommend your business or product to their friends and family, often sending a
healthy stream of new customers your way.

You should try to leverage their experience and learn what makes them so
satisfied with your business. When you have the chance, ask them which
aspects of your product, service or business they like the most. Take note and try
to replicate that experience so that other customers can become your brand
ambassadors.

- Give them a platform: You can help them spread the love and feature him in
a case study. A bit of social proof like that will make your landing pages much
more appealing to potential customers.
- Learn from his experience: See what turned them into a loyal follower and
make sure that happens more often with other customers.
- Don’t mess it up: Whatever you do, make sure that they stay excited about
your product, services and business.
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2) How to Identify Your Competitors

Competitors are out there and they're hungry for your customers. You need to
consider devoting the time and energy into keeping tabs on your competition –
Competitive Intelligence.

You can then plan your own strategies so that you keep your customers and win
(not steal) customers away from competitors. In other words, keeping tabs on
your competition is a great strategy for growing your business.

Finding your competitors doesn’t have to be complicated. The first step to finding
your competitors is to differentiate between your direct and indirect
competition.
 What is Direct Competition?

Direct competition is a term that refers to the companies who

sell or market the same products or services as your business. Your
customers will often evaluate both you and your direct competitors before
making a purchase decision or converting.

What is Indirect Competition?

Indirect competition is a term that refers to the companies or that don’t

sell or market the same products or services, but are in competition with
your business digitally. They may write the same type of content as you and be
competing for the same keywords. In short, they are competing for your
customers’ attention. Sometimes an indirect competitor can
become a direct competitor.

Researching Your Competition

i) Go beyond a Google search

If appropriate try Google Trends – This can beit's helpful when you want
to stay on top of the latest in your industry, comparing your company to
others, and seeing where people who come to your site go.

ii) Do some reporting

There are great and resources for checking up on your competitors online
and offline. Do you have a local society, assocoation or governing body
for your industry, product or service type?

iii) Tap the social network

Many companies are increasingly using social networking sites like
Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter as marketing outlets these days, you
might be able to pick up interesting facts about your competition--and
maybe even your own company--just by tuning in.

Monitoring tweets, Facebook posts, blogs, and other new media mentions
of our competition is an easy, cost-effective way to stay in tune with and
in the know about the public's sentiment about your competitors.

Even if your competition aren’t knowledgeable about or don’t use social

media, it's a good bet that they produce newsletters--either e-mail or print
varieties--that you can sign up for to get the latest and greatest news and
updates on things like new products or services they are introducing and
what events they might be attending.
iv) Ask your customers
Speaking to customers is one of the best (and cheapest) ways of
gathering real information on competitors. Whenever you win a new
customer, find out who they used before, and why they switched to you
(i.e. the reason they were dissatisfied with their previous supplier). Do the
same when you lose a customer--identify what they preferred about your
competitor. If you gather enough of these stories you'll get a very clear
idea on what competitors are offering that customers view as preferable.
You can then adjust your own offering to that of the competitor.

v) Attend a conference
Attending industry trade shows and conferences--as well as joining
industry associations--can be a great way to learn about who your
competitors are and what they're offering,

vi) Check in with your suppliers

If you work in an industry where you share the same suppliers as your
competitors, it could pay to ask them some simple questions.

vii) Watch who they're hiring

You can also learn something by studying the kinds of jobs your
competitors are looking to fill. For example, if a company is hiring a
programmer, they will include information about exactly what technologies
the candidates need to know, which tells you what they use. Also look at
what positions they are hiring. If they're hiring for several Human
Resources, they may be preparing to expand overall.

viii) Conduct a survey

If you're interested in getting a comprehensive report of all the players in
your industry, you might consider conducting a survey.

ix) Call Them Up!

Once you have done enough research to identify who your competitors
are, you might want to try an old school tactic to take it from there: Just
call them up and ask away.

You'd be surprised how often companies will tell you everything you'd like
to learn over the phone, especially if the question is phrased in a context
that makes sense.

Everyone knows that rivals can't really be pals. Or can they? New
research suggests that not only is it possible to make friends with your
competitors -- it's advisable. No matter how competitive their industry,
rival CEOs who form friendships are at a distinct advantage over those
 who go it alone. When CEOs become friends, they talk shop. In the
course of casual conversation, they compare notes, share information,
and swap impressions about business conditions. That takes some of the
uncertainty out of doing business.

It's important never to forget where friendship ends and business begins.
After all, not every apparently friendly rival is going to have pure
intentions. Most new business initiatives, such as a new a new products
and services strategy you investing in, remain confidential. Everyone
draws the line in a different place, but it's important to set limits and stick
to them, particularly if your ties grow stronger.

The clearest way to identify your competitors is to figure out if you weren’t
around, who would supply your customers to fill their needs and what
customers would buy to solve their problems? In answering this question,
don’t restrict your thinking only to companies similar to your own.

What you need to know about your competitors?

Monitor the way your competitors do business. Look at:

- The products or services they provide and how they market them to
customers

- The prices they charge

- How they distribute and deliver

- The devices they employ to enhance customer loyalty and what back-up
service they offer

- Their brand and design values

- Whether they innovate - business methods as well as products

- Their staff numbers and the calibre of staff that they attract

- how they use IT - for example, if they're technology-aware and offer a -

website and email

- Who owns the business and what sort of person they are

- Their annual report - if they're a public company

- Their media activities - check their website, social media, as well as local
newspapers, radio, television and any outdoor advertising

How to act on the competitor information you get

Evaluate the information you find about your competitors. This should tell you
whether there are gaps in the market you can exploit. It should also indicate
whether there is a saturation of suppliers in certain areas of your market, which might
lead you to focus on less competitive areas.

Draw up a list of everything that you've found out about your competitors,
however small.

Put the information into three categories:

- What you can learn from and do better

- What they're doing worse than you
- What they're doing the same as you

What you can learn from and do better

If you're sure your competitors are doing something better than you, you need to
respond and make some changes. It could be anything from improving customer
service, assessing your prices and updating your products, to changing the way you
market yourself, redesigning your literature and website and changing your suppliers.

Try to innovate not imitate. Now you've got the idea, can you do it even better, add
more value?

Your competitors might not have rights over their actual ideas, but remember the rules
on patents, copyright and design rights.

What they're doing worse than you

Exploit the gaps you've identified. These may be in their product range or service,
marketing or distribution, even the way they recruit and retain employees.

Customer service reputation can often provide the difference between businesses
that operate in a very competitive market. Renew your efforts in these areas to exploit
the deficiencies you've discovered in your competitors.

But don't be complacent about your current strengths. Your current offerings may
still need improving and your competitors may also be assessing you. They may adopt
and enhance your good ideas.

What they're doing the same as you

Why are they doing the same as you, particularly if you're not impressed by other
things they do? Perhaps you both need to make some changes.

Analyse these common areas and see whether you've got it right. And even if you
have, your competitor may be planning an improvement.